1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to dispensing articles and, more particularly, is concerned with an apparatus and method for dispensing items such as newspapers, magazines, and the like, in single copy fashion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Newspaper vending machines are commonplace throughout the United States. The usual type of machine is operated by depositing an appropriate amount of money into the machine, opening the door of the machine, and removing one of the many accessible newspapers. Although multiple newspaper copies are accessible to the operator of the machine, the intention is that the operator will remove only the number of copies appropriate for the amount of money deposited.
Despite the fact that many patents have issued for vending machines which will vend a single newspaper at a time, the most commonly used coin operated newspaper vending machine in general use today remains the type which contains a stack of newspapers therein and has a coin operated door which allows the door to be opened when sufficient coins are deposited to pay for only a single newspaper. However, once the door is opened, all of the newspapers remaining in the vending machine are at risk. This conventional type of vending machine or box has a door which is spring loaded, so that it can not be left in the open position. A source of irritation to some customers is that they lose their grip on the door after having paid for a paper, upon which occurrence the door slams closed and full payment must be made to reopen the door.
Single copy newspaper dispensing machines have been proposed before. Upon deposit of an appropriate predetermined amount of money, they dispense a single newspaper copy only.
The applicants are aware of the following U.S. Patents relating to dispensing machines:
__________________________________________________________________________ U.S. PAT. NO. INVENTOR ISSUE DATE TITLE __________________________________________________________________________ 4,865,178 Lewandowski 9/12/89 SINGLE COPY VENDING MACHINE FOR NEWSPAPERS AND THE LIKE 4,802,606 Daniels 2/7/89 NEWSPAPER DISPENSER 4,700,869 Bogner 10/20/87 SINGLE ITEM VENDING MACHINE 4,654,513 Hennessy 3/31/87 NEWSPAPER VENDING MACHINE 4,625,894 James, et al. 12/2/86 NEWSPAPER VENDING MACHINE 4,544,081 Voegeli 10/1/85 NEWSPAPER DISPLAY MACHINE 4,506,800 Wingate 3/26/85 MACHINE FOR VENDING ARTICLES SUCH AS NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES AND THE LIKE 4,389,000 Godley, et al. 6/21/83 NEWSPAPER VENDING MACHINE 4,312,461 Godley, Sr. 1/26/83 NEWSPAPER VENDING MACHINE 4,139,120 Moore 2/13/79 VENDING APPARATUS FOR NEWSPAPERS AND ANALOGOUS ARTICLES 3,998,358 Moore 12/21/76 APPARATUS FOR DISPENSING ARTICLES SUCH AS NEWSPAPERS AND THE LIKE 3,907,160 Moore 9/23/75 APPARATUS FOR DISPENSING ARTICLES SUCH AS NEWSPAPERS AND THE LIKE __________________________________________________________________________
Lewandowski, Daniels, and Bogner each relate to a newspaper dispenser for vending a single item from a horizontally stacked set of items.
Hennessy relates to a newspaper vending machine for dispensing a single newspaper from a slanted or inclined stack of newspapers.
James discloses a newspaper vending machine for dispensing a plurality of folded rectangular newspapers disposed substantially upright and adjacent to each other.
Voegeli relates to a display machine of the type including a coin actuated unlocking device for dispensing articles to be sold.
Wingate relates to a machine for vending articles such as newspapers, magazines and the like.
Godley et al. and Godley, Sr. both relate to newspaper vending machines having vertically movable inclined platforms for supporting a group of newspapers and dispensing thereof.
The Moore Patents ('120, '358, '160) each relate to apparati for dispensing articles such as newspapers and the like wherein an article supporting means supports a stack of superimposed articles inclined downwardly and forwardly at an angle for facilitating dispenses of the articles one at a time from the stack.
However, none of the patented machines have ever met with commercial success because newspapers are printed in thicknesses which vary from day to day. Thus, a vending machine must be able to accommodate newspapers having substantially differing number of pages.
The described shortcomings of existing inventions demonstrate a need for a novel apparatus and method for dispensing newspapers in single copy fashion. The present invention is such an apparatus and a method for accomplishing its operation.